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The warm weather and sunshine that characterize summer time come with an opportunity to get outdoors and enjoy a number of activities. The problem, however, is that some of these activities can be harmful to the environment.

If you are going to engage in anything that pollutes the environment and endangers the livelihood of plants and animals around you, you will be doing a major disservice to nature. Going green in summer is the best choice because other than enjoying your time, you also will be helping in conserving the environment. Here are 3 eco-friendly summer activities that you can try with your family.

Visit local ecological hot spots

Taking your children to a local botanical garden or an organic farm is an opportunity for them to learn about the ecosystem. Maybe, they have learned about these things at school but they have not experienced them first hand. This can greatly rejuvenate their interest in preserving the ecosystem.

In addition to that, you might want to take them to the park where they can see a variety of plants as well as animals. Use this opportunity to answer every question that they ask because that is the best way to raise people who are passionate about going green.

Take up gardening and composting

When was the last time you grew anything in your backyard? You probably could not do it in winter but you now have the chance. Let your family prepare the soil, find seeds and seedlings and then grow them. In as much as they will be having fun doing it, they also will be creating a source of food.

Before you realize it, you will have more vegetables, fruits and other foods that you ever needed. In fact, you can sell some of it and supplement your income. If you take to gardening, be sure to use eco-friendly methods such as compost manure instead of fertilizers.

Try making art from nature

If your kids love art, you can buy some canvas and easel and take them to their favorite park. Ask them to draw or paint anything that they see. Some of them will draw trees while others will be interested in the landscape. Some will even want to draw the birds and other animals that roam the park.

Although this might seem like just another normal drawing session, you will be amazed by the effect that it will have on the kids. Back home, they will be looking at their drawings and paintings and they will be talking about nothing but nature. They already will have developed a passion for the ecosystem without noticing it.

As you can see from these 3 eco-friendly summer activities, the onset of summer is not just a time to indulge in fun activities. It is a perfect opportunity to take care of the ecosystem and appreciate everything about it.

By the time summer comes to an end, the ecosystem should be a better place and not a mess due to ridiculous human activities. Choose to go green and preserve the environment.

Whilst going green is good for the planet, it is also good for our health. Did you know there are many health benefits with going green? In this article, we will have a brief look at what some of these health benefits are.

Reducing The Use Of Energy

Most energy comes from fossil fuels. Fossil fuels cause many problems. There are many health benefits when it comes to reducing energy and using alternate energy. Some of these health benefits are as follows:

Breath Easier. Allergies, asthma and lung cancer are often caused by pollution. By going green, we will not only clean the air space, but we will be able to breath easier.

A Healthier Heart. Cardiac problems and heart disease are often caused by fossil fuels. Making the most of green energy will actually help you to have a healthy heart.

Let The Sun Shine In. Rather than using lights all the time, open the curtains or blinds and let the sun shine in instead. Not only the cost of electricity reduce, but the health benefits that come from the sun will also help you. Natural lighting will improve your calcium intake. It will also improve your mood and overall health.

Change Transportation Habits

Not only will changing your transportation habits reduce pollution, but it will also improve your overall health.

Ride A Bike. Riding a bike to work or other places will give you some good exercise. Your heart health will also improve. Riding a bike can also help you to lose weight.

Use The Bus. Using public transport will not only cut down pollution, but you will also get exercise whilst walking to and from the stops.

Appreciate Nature. Whilst you are walking or riding a bike, you also have opportunity to appreciate the nature around you. Spending time outside will increase concentration, improve your mood, and reduce fatigue.

Household Products

A lot of products you have at home have some sort of chemicals in them. This can have an impact on your health. To improve your health try doing the following.

Use Healthier Household Cleaners To Clean With. Most cleaning products have chemicals in them that can be harmful. Respiratory problems and headaches can occur if these are used a lot. If you stop using these, and use non-toxic household cleaner instead, you should soon notice a difference.

Be Wary Of Plastic Containers. Research has shown that some plastic containers can cause fertility problems. If we store food in these containers this can damage our health. Always use containers that are environment friendly. This will reduce the harmful effects such containers have on your health.

Picking the Best Pressure Cooker for the Job?

Pressure cookers are exceptionally useful tools, incomparable in their ability to fast tenderize vegetables and meat and extra flavors. A dish that take hours to simmer on the stovetop, can be prepared in less than an hour with the aid of a pressure cooker. Pressure cooked dishes taste so flavorful and bright because all the tasty extra nutrients, vitamins and minerals are still locked in the cooking liquid and food. These four green pressure cooker dishes or recipes turn chicken stews, rice and even beans into fast, simple, totally nutritious and delicious meals. Remember that there are some great pressure cookers you can choose from before getting started that have different bult and features, you can visit our friends over at pressurecookertoday.com for some pressure cooker reviews and comparison of the top picks of 2016.

This fragrant, lovely Thai-style green chicken curry usually tastes like it got prepared for hours, but it cooks for only 20 minutes in a pressure cooker. One common downside to preparing pressure cooker stews is their tendency to become a little watery due to all the trapped steam condensing back into the dish. There are methods to get around that, in this case the pieces of eggplant and sweet kabocha squash cook down into the coconut-milk based sauce, making it thick and adding layers of flavor and fragrance to this weeknight main. The taste can also be improved by adding ingredients such as green hot sauce or green salsa and freshly ground pepper.

2. Pressure Cooker Mexican Green Rice

Rice is often used in pressure cooker recipes, because it is more than a regular filler. Rice adds texture to dishes and absorbs sauces and juices that would alternatively escape from the dishes. This makes food more flavorful and less messy. Liquids may cause the meal to be very soft, falling apart as the dish is eaten. Pressure cooking adds an amazing flavor to the rice, yet still leaves the rice fluffy and light. This pressure cooked Mexican green rice with cilantro, green salsa and avocado is a great alternative to the traditional Spanish rice.

3. Pressure Cooker Green Beans

Fresh green beans are favorite for the summer garden. They can take hours to cook, but the pressure cooker gets them to simmer perfectly to the proper southern degree of tenderness in about 15 minutes. This saves so much energy and time and the dish is very delicious. Some of the wonderful recipes that constitute green beans in a pressure cooker include stewed green beans, three bean salad, and potato and porcini green bean salad or casserole. A pressure cooker also works well on frozen green beans.

4. Pressure Cooker Collard Greens

This collard greens dish is a favorite southern food that is easy and quick to prepare in the pressure cooker. Southern collard greens are very tough hence they need long cooking. They usually take about 30 minutes to tenderize in the pressure cooker which would normally take 2 to 3 hours in a slow cooker. Pressure cooking also makes the collards velvety and with no bitterness. This recipe has unlimited variations and can be cooked along with roasted ham hocks, bacon or smoked turkey for a more wholesome and tasty meal.

Conclusion

There is no denying the application of the pressure cooker, slow cooking done faster. This is ultimately a quick worker of wonders for pressure cooker fans thanks to its reduced cooking times and its advantage in preparing healthy recipes.

Going green has become the highlight of environmental protection and upgrade. In nearly every aspect of the present day life, eco-friendly systems and equipment have become the ultimate choice in homes and in commercial settings like workplaces. Tech manufacturers have been on the forefront in protecting and promoting the environment by enabling their consumers to live an eco-friendly lifestyle. This has been through the invention of some of the must have green tech products for each home.

Top 6 Green Tech Products That Are Must for Each Home include:

High-Tech Thermostats

Thermostats are some of the widely used home appliances especially in controlling energy use through heating and cooling. High-tech thermostats also referred to as smart thermostats vary the temperature of a home depending on the lifestyle and schedule of the home owner. These sleek and uniquely modern thermostats come with highly efficient sensors, cloud computing and algorithms that learn and store data about your schedule and lifestyle behaviors. This information is then used by the sensors to automatically turn the thermostat on or off depending on the present weather conditions.

Eco-friendly smart household appliances

From a fridge that keeps record of your diet to an eco-friendly washing machine, there is an endless list of household items that are designed and developed using green technology. These household appliances use smart grid systems that enable them to operate when there is low electricity usage. For instance, a green-tech washer reserves energy-intensive washes for off-peak hours since at such times electricity is cheaper. The best thing about smart household appliances is that they are uniquely designed to allow for smart diagnosis through the internet; thereby making them cheap to run and maintain.

Home-automated lighting systems

You no longer need to manually switch on/off your home lighting systems. This is because you can now use automatic lighting systems that come with customized hardware that allow you to remotely control light switches. These systems come in handy when you going away from home for a couple of days as you need not leave your light on throughout the time you will be away. Using a smartphone app, you can control the lighting system at home from the comfort of your phone even when you are thousands of miles away. Even though these systems are particularly common among people with million dollar homes, there are cheaper and affordable systems for middle-class and low-income folks.

Power adapters

One common characteristic of green tech products and systems is that they require little installations. As such, they do not require power-intensive installations that will eventually become too hard and expensive to sustain. This is why it is important to have power adapters at home as they ensure that only the exact power and voltage is supplied to the systems in the home. This in turn helps in reducing power consumption in the home and consequently helps in considerably reducing power bills.

Solar panels and wind generators

Using solar panels and wind generators is one of the best and most economical ways of reducing pollution, utilizing solar and wind energy, reducing energy bills and most importantly living a green lifestyle. Solar panels and wind generators may cost a sizeable amount of money to install but are very durable and can last up to two decades without needing any repair or replacement. As such, they are very viable in the long run as they can power nearly all systems in a typical home without any excessive power needs.

Smart HVAC Systems

Most homeowners incur high power costs since they use common HVAC systems that have zero or almost zero power saving features. Mostly, such systems are manually operated and require to be switched on or off. This is why it is worthy to invest in a smart HVAC system that is able to automatically vary itself without any manual input from the homeowner. Such a system goes a long way in reducing power wastage in homes and by extension, preventing the over-exploitation of the environment in search for power sources.

Iceland is one of the warmest cold countries you will find – especially so toward. Iceland is the land of sheep, northern lights and volcanoes with complicated names. It’s supposedly one of the least budget-friendly countries in the world. However, many tourists see expensive countries as a challenge. Figuring out how to visit a country on the cheap is like solving a puzzle for many.

Solheimer, Iceland’s first eco-village

Solheimer, Iceland’s first eco-village is located in southwest Iceland, 80 kilometers east of Reykjavik. Founded in 1930 by a visionary named Sesselja Sigmundsdottir, the place has become reputable for its ecological concept, attracting volunteers from all over the world. This village was also Iceland’s first community for children with disabilities. The education and exhibition center called Sesselja’s House is extremely eco-friendly. It’s made of an old-fashioned turf roof, wool and paper insulation and Iceland’s largest solar cell.

Vegan/Vegetarian Food in Iceland

Iceland has several eco-friendlyrestaurants that specifically cater to vegetarians and vegans. Vegetarian whole food restaurants offer daily vegan specials, hearty rye bread, chutneys, hummus and the like. Such is the case with a restaurant known as A Neaestu Grosum. Graenn Kostur is the name of a restaurant that offers eco-friendly wheat-free and different vegan options and pitchers full of fruit-infused waters.

Hof, Iceland

Iceland is famous for eco-friendly turf houses that have been constructed for centuries. The landscape known as Hof takes your breath away and quite quickly restores it and you get it in its purest form. The people truly live in nature and embrace it. They do not try to control it or conquer it. The landscape is vast, houses minimal, colors vibrant and people sincere.

Eco-friendly whale watching

Whale watching is a tremendously popular activity for tourists visiting Iceland. And no wonder, the seas around the country are teaming with whales and they are magnificent creatures. There are several companies located in the northern town of Husavik. The town is a pioneer in whale watching. The town is offering boats with an electrical engine, which means they are powered by eco-friendly energy from the Icelandic power grid. These boats are quiet and have zero Co2 emissions when whale watching.

The Secret Solstice Summer Festival

The Secret Solstice summer festival which takes place in the park known as Laugardalur in the central area of Reykjavik, has since its first year, 2014, taken means to limit its bad impact on the environment. The festival has been praised as such. The sun actually never sets over the three-day summer music festival, which is held in mid June.

Laugarvatn

Laugarvatn is a small village located on the shores of a scenic lake, midway between Pingvellir national park and Gullfoss waterfall. This village has long been a center for education as well as a popular summer resort among go-green tourists due to the geothermal bath.

Hotel Husafell

Travelers looking for an off-the-beaten path yet eco-friendly experience may want to check out the Hotel Husafell. This hotel is a luxury lodge positioned on the edge of a glacier. The hotel is located 90 minutes from Reykjavik and 20 minutes from Langjokull glacier. This hotel uses 100 percent renewable energy produced on site. Guests of the resort-style hotel may enjoy the outdoor eco-friendly thermal pools and amazing hot tubs as well as access to the nine-hole golf course offered in summer.

There are millions of fishing enthusiasts all over the planet and the activity has been around for centuries. It has also greatly advanced in terms of the methods and equipment used when angling. The several technological advancements opened the doors for creation of the best fishing gadgets for better hunting. For a more exciting and eco-friendly fishing experience, anyone should have a complete set of fishing tools, and there are several kinds available in the market.

The Fish Finder

The Standalone Sonar, Fish Finder Combo and Networked Solutions are three of the most common types of fish finders that are available in the market today. This gadget is a must have for any serious angler but, choosing the right one might pose a big challenge. Listed below are some factors that you’ve to take into consideration if you wish to find the best fish finder for eco-friendly fish hunting.

Standalone

This is the ideal fish finder for anyone who wishes to settle for the most basic ones, and who feels that their fishing activities are pretty simple. Unlike with most types, this unit doesn’t come with the GPS function. In spite of what has just been said, you’ll get to make the most of its solar functions, and its viewing display is quite impressive. You can read more about the best fish finders over web and get comparison of top listings and reviews.

Fish Finder Combo

The Combo is the perfect device for anyone who wants something affordable and with all the developed features that are needed for professional or recreational fishing. This gadget is equipped with GPS and is the best guide in finding the ultimate fishing spots. With that said, it can also find your way home.

The Networked Solution

This gadget is considered to be the most advanced among all three. It’s ideal for anyone who wants to enjoy the convenience of accessing all the functions from several fishing gadgets using one, main equipment. However, unlike the other two, this device might not be soft on your wallet but, if you wish to take your fishing experience on a whole new level then the Networked Solution is the one that you need.

The Personal Gear

There is nothing more essential than a pair of sunglasses that will shield your eyes from the harmful UV rays when you’re out on the water. These will also help you see your fish better while you’re trying to fight against the glare.

A powerful torchlight is another important item for your trips during the night. When the visibility is limited, you need to see what you’re doing with the help of torchlight.

A few other items that you can add on your essential gear list include a lockable snap swivel as well as a marine thermometer.

Spinning Fishing Rod

This is a more sophisticated fishing rod in which the entire rod revolves around its axis except for the handle. For any fisherman, this provides a great deal of flexibility, stability and strain tolerance in catching fish which struggle a lot. You can use them for both lightweight as well as heavyweight fishing, and have been proven to be ideal for fishing trout, walleye and bass.

More and more people are getting into kayaking nowadays. After all, it is a fun water sport that is relatively easy to learn and have varying degrees of difficulty – one can even compete if they are so dedicated! in addition to being a good workout, kayaking also brings one closer to nature. What is more? Kayaking is an enjoyable activity regardless of whether you are trying it out as some sort of a solo adventure or you are going with friends.

But aside from the fun, adventure, and numerous health benefits that come along with kayaking, did you know that kayaking, in itself, is actually pretty interesting? Here are some interesting facts about kayaking you probably have not yet heard about:

Kayaks have been around for much longer than you might think. Kayaking might have picked up popularity quite recently, but this water sport is by no means a recent invention. In fact, the kayak was first invented by the Innuits roughly 4,000 years ago. The word “kayak” originally meant “hunter’s boat” and, true enough, it served that purpose during its earlier conception, especially since kayaks are very quiet, making them ideal for hunting and stalking prey. Kayaks were originally made out of animalskin stretched over either a wooden or a whale bone frame. Back then, seal skin was the preferred material considering its waterproof properties. Another ancient variety of the kayak is the “umiag”, which was typically used by earlier tribes as transportation of their families.Umiags can be really long, with some measuring up to 60 feet.

Not all kayaks are created equal. At present, there are eight main types of kayaks according to this kayak guide, each with a particular characteristic that makes it more suitable for certain activities and purposes. The speed of kayaks, in particular, tend to greatly depend on the its type and build. Generally, longer kayaks are faster than shorter ones.

Kayaks have actually been used for military operations. Kayaks may look pretty basic and harmless, but these boats have actually been material in certain military operations, especially during the war. Specifically, two-man kayaks called “kleppers” have been used in special missions which involve either insertion or extraction. The small size and the stealth capabilities of the humble kayak have made this unassuming vessel the transportation mode of choice by the US Marines, the British Commando, and even the Canadian Special Operations Forces Command.

It is possible to cross the ocean in a kayak. While this is hardly an advisable activity for beginners, the thing is crossing the ocean in a kayak is actually feasible – and true enough, it has been done before. Even more interestingly, it has been accomplished a long time ago, too! To be precise, it was accomplished in 1928 by a 29-year old German kayaker and World War I veteran named Franz Romer. Romer crossed the Atlantic Ocean, travelling roughly 4,000 miles to Puerto Rico from Lisbon, Portugal.

It is also possible to raft up together multiple kayaks. You think rafting up together five kayaks is ludicrous? Well, wait until you hear how many kayaks have been successfully rafted up together. In 2011, 1902 kayaks were successfully rafted up together in Inlet, New York. That high number certainly earned a spot in the world records.

There is an objective way of assessing a river’s rapid. Judging how difficult a rapid may sound like complete guesswork and perfectly arbitrary, but there is actually a standard for measuring such difficulty. In fact, there is an international scale of difficulty which kayaker’s use in describing the strength of river rapids.

Kayaking can also be an extreme support. What makes kayaking so appealing is the fact that it is beginner-friendly. Even individuals who are not into extreme sports can enjoy it and get a kick out of kayaking. Nevertheless, kayaking can be done with increasing difficulty. For example, one can kayak on long, winding rapids – or even do a waterfall drop! And true enough, in 2009, an American kayaker by the name of Tyler Bradt set the world record for the highest waterfall drop while on board a kayak. How high was the drop? A whopping 189 feet over Palouse Falls!

Pretty interesting, right? Kayaking may sound super chill, making it perfect for beginners, but this water sport actually has a long and interesting history. From the kayak itself to the peats performed while on board one, it is undeniable that this water sport is a lot more dynamic and more interesting than is commonly assumed.

I hope that the seven interesting information tidbits about kayaking above has piqued your interest in kayaking and has motivated you to try out the sport. After all, who knows? You might end up being the next one to set a world record on kayaking.